20 Mehr 1401

Events

• 539 BC The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia conquer Babylon, ending the Babylonian empire. (Julian calendar)
• 1398 (628 years ago) In the Treaty of Salynas, Lithuania cedes Samogitia to the Teutonic Knights.
• 1944 (82 years ago) World War II: The Axis occupation of Athens comes to an end.
• 1967 (59 years ago) A bomb explodes on board Cyprus Airways Flight 284 while flying over the Mediterranean Sea, killing 66.
• 1968 (58 years ago) Equatorial Guinea becomes independent from Spain.
• 1996 (30 years ago) New Zealand holds its first general election under the new mixed-member proportional representation system, which led to Jim Bolger's National Party forming a coalition government with Winston Peters's New Zealand First.
• 1999 (27 years ago) The former Autonomous Soviet Republic of Abkhazia declares its independence from Georgia.
• 2012 (14 years ago) The European Union wins the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize.

Births

• 1537 (489 years ago) Edward VI, king of England (died 1553)
• 1798 (228 years ago) Pedro I, emperor of Brazil (died 1834)
• 1866 (160 years ago) Ramsay MacDonald, Scottish journalist and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1937)
• 1875 (151 years ago) Aleister Crowley, English magician and author (died 1947)
• 1891 (135 years ago) Edith Stein, Polish nun and martyr; later canonized (died 1942)
• 1896 (130 years ago) Eugenio Montale, Italian poet and translator, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1981)
• 1935 (91 years ago) Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor and actor (died 2007)
• 1968 (58 years ago) Hugh Jackman, Australian actor, singer, and producer

Deaths

• 322 BC Demosthenes, Athenian statesman, (born 384 BC)
• 638 (1388 years ago) Honorius I, pope of the Catholic Church
• 642 (1384 years ago) John IV, pope of the Catholic Church
• 1492 (534 years ago) Piero della Francesca, Italian mathematician and painter (born 1415)
• 1870 (156 years ago) Robert E. Lee, American general (born 1807)
• 1924 (102 years ago) Anatole France, French journalist, novelist, and poet, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1844)
• 1999 (27 years ago) Wilt Chamberlain, American basketball player and coach (born 1936)
• 2011 (15 years ago) Dennis Ritchie, American computer scientist, created the C programming language (born 1941)

All 455 events, births and deaths of October 12